27 June 2010

We traveled to Idaho this week for a family reunion with Becky's family. We met Grandma and Grandpa, Joe, Sarah, Zina, Joe, Keri, Josiah, Sawyer, Hayden, Gage and Barbara in Island Park and spent a few days exploring Yellowstone National Park. One stop was at Mammoth Hot Springs, a giant terraced formation, largely made of travertine. In the photo, Josiah, Sophie, Grandpa, Barbara and Zina are standing in front of Liberty Cap, an extinct geyser.  One of the Joe's is a geologist and we all benefited from his mini tutorials on the local geology. The canyon walls get their color from altered rhyolite. We suppose Yellowstone National Park is a catchier name than Altered Rhyolite National Park. 

 

Sophie is standing at Artists' Point with a view of the Lower Falls, in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 

The cousins loved playing together and swapping between cars. Luckily, no one got left behind as they switched between 3 vans. Here Gibson shows how delighted he is to be sitting between his twin cousins, Hayden and Gage.

We hiked down 328 stairs to the bottom of the Lower Falls.

Becky and Brandan at the bottom of the stairs.

Joe and Keri gave Gibson a headlamp which he wore night and day. Here he wears it while he eats bacon with both hands.

Sophie, Zina, Abe, Josiah and Helen all completed the requirements to become Junior Park Rangers.

A colony of ground squirrels lived under the cabin's deck. Josiah and Abe loved scaring the ground squirrels by hissing at them like snakes.

The kids were glad to get out of the cars for hikes and viewpoints. Here they are at Big Springs, one of the springs that feed into the Snake River.

Here are all 6 of us at Upper Mesa Falls. The Snake River creates two dramatic waterfalls as it crosses over the edge of the Island Park caldera.     ~      One of the most fun things about a trip to Yellowstone is the enormous quantities of wildlife that casually stroll through the park. With our point-and-shoot camera, we don't bother taking photos of animals, but here is the tally for our trip -- countless bison, elk and deer, one snake, assorted chipmunks and squirrels, birds ranging in size from hummingbirds to hawks. Sophie saw a bear, along with Grandma, Grandpa, Joe, Sarah, Zina and Barbara, and they weren't happy about it. The rest of us are jealous, but then we didn't have a bear run across the road in front of us as we were driving 65 mph.